Upgrade advice

[danielhayter]

Hello,

I have been a Mac user for about a year and a half and have been reading these conferences for about the same amount of time but this is my first contribution.

I have a late-2005 12" iBook G4 (1.33ghz, 60gb HD, 768mb RAM).

I use my computer for what I assume to be processor-light applications - mainly iTunes, iPhoto, Safari and Word. I am very happy with it and particularly like that it runs so quiet (fans only come on when watching movies), how portable it is, and it's battery life.

However I have some spare cash and was thinking about upgrading. I could either up the RAM to 1gb or even 1.5gb. Or I could wait until Leopard comes out and buy a Macbook (financed partly by selling my iBook on Ebay as they appear to have great re-sale value). Or of course I could do nothing at all, as I am very happy with how the computer works. So the question is - would increasing my RAM result in a notable performance gain for my uses? And if I decide to upgrade to a Macbook when Leopard comes out - do the Macbooks run as quiet (and cool) as my iBook? Is the 13" form factor considerably less portable than my iBook?

Thanks for any advice you guys have.

 

[marvinsum]

If you're completely happy with it, stay with it. Remember the old saying: "if she ain't broke, don't fix it".

I would save that extra cash and then see what happens when Leopard comes. I would say new MacBooks (& Pros) with Santa Rosa + Leopard installed, but my guess is as good as yours.

I recently bought a MacBook and I love it. Portable? I'm not sure about going from a 12' to a 13.3', but it felt good stepping down from a 15.4' Dell. The Dell was simply ginormous.

 

[furious]

Tough choice.

I personally would upgrade the RAM and wait for 10.5.2 or later. Getting 10.5.0 or.1 there might (be not saying there will be) stability issues. So I think you would be better to upgrade the RAM now and put money away so you can by a Macbook later. Even though the iBook is several years old now it is still enough for you. The added bonus would be that word 2008 should be universal by the time 10.5.2 comes around. meaning no rosette. iBooks and Macbooks to my knowledge produce the same amount of noise.

 

[danielhayter]

Thanks for the tips.

Would I notice a performance increase if I upgrade to 1gb, or am I best going all out with 1.5gb?

I have found a 1gb stick of Kingston ValueRAM on Ebay. What is the difference between ValueRAM and 'normal' RAM? Is it risky?